


In Need Of Repair

by sarai377



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Beauty and the Beast AU, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Risen King Chrom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 20:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18746107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarai377/pseuds/sarai377
Summary: Years ago, Grima cursed Chrom into an undying form, along with the rest of his castle. When innocent Robin wanders into the castle, hopelessly lost, Chrom at first believes him to be the demon that cursed him... but then gradually, falls for him.A brief glimpse into Chrom's backstory, and how broken the curse left him. (A small response to Citadelity's Beauty and the Beast Chrobin AU - because I couldn't help it!)mChrobin, Beauty and the Beast AU, Risen King Chrom





	In Need Of Repair

**Author's Note:**

> If you have not yet seen Kristin's comics, I highly recommend reading them all before reading this. This is a response to one of the comics she posted yesterday! 
> 
> Latest (relevant) comic can be found here: https://citadelity.tumblr.com/post/184704056556/awakening-beauty-and-the-beast-au-part-4  
> Comics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/shounenpng/status/1117986931936198661
> 
> (No promises on whether there might be more snippets of this au forthcoming... We shall see...)

Chrom wakes, blurry, to stare at his own hands.

Scarlet coats the inside of his eyelids when he blinks, threatening to consume him once more. His body is both too quiet and screaming, everything alight in a painful, _wrong_ way.

He’s standing in his rooms, feeling the bones in his hands, beneath his skin, as if they belong to someone else. He breathes in, but it feels wrong, as if… he hasn’t done it in hours.

Something happened. Memory rises, painting the back of his mind.

He remembers being startled out of a meeting by an unnatural thunder, shaking the castle to its ancient core.

Lissa, running in with the news that someone is attacking them.

Belting on his armor while the walls shudder.

Rushing outside with his companions, sword in hand.

The smirk on the lone attacker’s face as he turns to regard Chrom and his Shepherds.

Chrom shouts at him, and the demon - for surely, that is what one must call a being with the power to shake stone foundations - loses that smile.

Then the demon calls down the lightning.

His hands shake, and he closes them into fists. Another breath. His body is too still, his heart - too quiet.

As if it no longer beats at all.

He is aware, after the demon’s laughing face, only of fractured emotions, the most overwhelming being _fury_. Dazed, he looks up.

His rooms are utterly destroyed. The curtains are shredded, hanging in ripped ruins from broken bedposts, sagging near the windows. Drawers have been hacked to pieces, dangling from the dresser like broken arms or wings.

Falchion is driven deep into the bed - and Chrom is the only one whose blood activates the eversharp blade.

He did this, somehow, though he has no memory of it.

He drifts across his rooms, a dread horror settling into his body as he surveys this casual destruction, like a feral creature was let loose within. He forces breath in and then out, again and again, but it’s like his body has forgotten how to breathe.

As he walks, a cold numbness takes hold, deeper than any snow drift he’s seen before.

The mirror is shattered, and shards of glass catch the dim light from the window. He sees an image of himself, a hundred times over, as he crosses the rooms. Darkness hovers over him, making it difficult to look himself in the eye. He feels a strange weight on his head, a crown he never wore before. It is almost… taunting him, this dark-wrought metal, woven into his hair. He reaches up and touches it, but can feel nothing through the strange new gloves.

There is a painting propped against the far wall, tumbled from its hanging place. The frame is cracked, the canvas sagging, altering the image on it. He stumbles toward it, goes to his knees before it.

Something burns hot in his chest for a moment, flickering to life from cold embers - and then, with the finality of winter, it is dashed out, smothered. Something cold and wet lingers on his cheeks.

He stands. His hands rip a curtain from the nearest window, relishing in the sound as it comes free. He drapes it over the artwork almost tenderly, like covering a corpse with a burial shroud.

It doesn’t make him feel any better, but at least he doesn’t have to look at the three faces there, to see his long-dead sister’s smile ripped apart by the brutal destruction of his own hands.

~*~

Chrom blinks, and looks down at Robin’s sweet, innocent smile. He wants to see Chrom’s bedchambers. There’s such joy and eagerness in Robin’s expression. _Can I see?_ Robin had asked.

Chrom wants to say no. He doesn’t want to return to those rooms, to face the destruction again. It reminds him too much of all his shortcomings, the things he’s been able to forget in his numb awareness, these past too-long years since he’d fallen under the curse. The fact that he wasn’t strong enough to defend his castle, and the sudden thought - he sucks in a breath with lungs long unused to the motion - that he cannot protect _Robin_ , should the demon return.

But he doesn't want to deny Robin anything.

“Come,” he says, and turns away from Robin.

He pauses, and Robin falls in beside him, chattering away about how happy he is that Chrom is sharing this with him, that he hopes to find some answers or explanation of the curse there.

Chrom knows he won’t - but perhaps Robin will find something that scares him into his senses.

This place is cursed, and Robin is the best, brightest thing that’s wandered the halls in years... He should leave. Of this, Chrom is certain - even as Robin settles a hand on his arm, even as they walk together.

Chrom’s eyes, which have not shed tears since that night, are suspiciously watery, candlelight glittering at the edges of his vision.

Robin _should_ run away from this place, and soon - before it’s too late. 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I fought against writing something for this au for a LONG time but I could not resist any longer. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! Please go give Kristin some likes and retweets or whatever for this amazing AU, it's lovely and I squeal over each update!


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